Magento CE 1.7 Stable Now Available

Magento Commerce CE Version 1.7 is now available for download and upgrade.

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The recent enhancements to Magento Commerce help merchants provide a more personalized shopping experience for their customers. Benefits include mobile HTML5, auto-generation of coupon codes, customer group pricing, etc. These enhancements give merchants greater potential to boost consumer engagement, increase conversions and transaction size, and foster brand loyalty. All merchants, including those running B2B businesses, can take advantage of improved customer segmentation and ordering capabilities while those operating in Europe can use the new features in Magento to stay compliant with EU regulations. Of course, the latest Magento release have lots in store for developers too, including a new API, and backup and rollback systems.

Please Note: We do NOT recommend upgrading a production installation of Magento directly. Please backup database and all files before upgrading. Please make sure to check for compatibility of your plugins and themes before you upgrade.

Read on to learn about the key features in the new Magento release and how they can benefit you.

Magento 1.7 - Mobile HTML5

Mobile HTML5

Quickly and easily create a storefront optimized for mobile devices so customers can shop even when they’re on the go. This mobile interface uses HTML5 technology and supports iPhone, Android and Mobile Opera browsers. It includes out-of-the-box features such as:

  • Device-specific media capabilities for audio and video
  • User-friendly search and results display
  • Clean display of product detail pages
  • Pinch, multi-touch and scaling images
  • Easy swipe between product images
  • Zoom capabilities
  • Cross-sell and up-sell capabilities
  • Drag-and-drop of products to the shopping cart
 
 
Magento 1.7 - Auto Generation Coupon Codes

Auto-generation of Coupon Codes

Generate a set of unique coupon codes for each promotion you run and export the list of codes for offline distribution, email, newsletters and more. Easily manage and monitor coupon usage and generate detailed reports.

 
 
 
Magento 1.7 - Layered Navigation Pricing Enhancement

Layered Navigation Pricing Enhancement

Magento introduced a new set of algorithms for price-layered navigation that provides much greater flexibility. Now you can display a range of prices that is based on having a similar number of products within each range, giving you better control of your customers’ search results, and helping your customers find what they’re looking for faster.

 
 
 
Magento 1.7 - Customer Group Pricing

Customer Group Pricing

One price doesn’t always fit all. This tool allows you to create different price points for different customer groups, such as wholesalers and retailers. You can determine both base price and tiered price levels.

 
 
 
Magento 1.7 - REST APIs Support

REST APIs Support

The new Magento REST API uses three-legged OAuth 1.0a protocol to allow applications to safely access Magento services. What this means for you? You can manage customers, customer addresses, sales orders, inventories and products using HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). Data requests and responses can be in XML or JSON format.

This initial version of the REST API supports the following functions:

  • Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete a simple product
  • Retrieve a list of orders and specific order information
  • Update/Retrieve catalog inventory
  • Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete complete customer information
 
 
Magento 1.7 - European Union VAT-ID Validation

European Union VAT-ID Validation

This feature facilitates the tax collection process for online businesses in the EU and greatly simplifies international B2B transactions by automatically applying the correct tax rules. Taxes can be calculated and charged according to VAT customer groups, based on customer shipping or billing addresses and VAT IDs.

 
 
 
Magento 1.7 - EU Cookie Restriction

EU Cookie Restriction

Magento’s response to the recent EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive? A new cookie notification feature that simplifies the compliance process. Once enabled, a message at the top of the storefront informs site visitors about the cookie policy and prompts them to accept or decline.

 
 
 
Magento 1.7 - Backup and Rollback

Backup and Rollback

Manage and schedule a variety of backup operations with the option to rollback the changes to reverse any modifications. This feature is particularly useful when testing new modules or customizations, or when upgrading to a new version of Magento. You can review specific customizations and their impact on the new code. (On a production environment, you should perform multiple forms of backup)

Three types of backup are supported:

  • System Backup
  • Database Backup
  • Database and Media Backup
 
 
Magento 1.7 - CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA

Now you can enable CAPTCHA functionality on your site to help prevent automated software from attempting fake logins. This auto-generated test ensures that the login is being attempted by a person and can be enabled in both the admin and customer login areas.